CHARLESTON, W. Va. — (Mealey’s) The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals on March 26 slashed a $196 million punitive damages award against DuPont and held that a jury must decide whether the class action suit, alleging contamination from the company’s zinc smelter, was filed within...

On September 30, 2010, the Stricker opinion was released by the Alabama District Court. The opinion validated all of the rumors as to the case being dismissed due to statute of limitations issues. As suspected, the case was dismissed on the fact that regardless of whether a three- or six-year statute...

PHILADELPHIA — (AP) A civil lawsuit filed Monday against the Archdiocese of Philadelphia by a man who said two priests had sexually abused him as a child may signal a new era in church-abuse litigation in Pennsylvania. The Roman Catholic archdiocese, long shielded by strict time limits by the state...

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - (AP) The Knights of Columbus, citing a statute of limitations, asked a judge to dismiss lawsuits by two men who say a youth leader sexually abused them decades ago. The men sued the New Haven-based group in December and said a former leader of the Columbian Squires. . . . Full version...

WASHINGTON ,D.C. - (Mealey's) On May 31, the U.S. Supreme Court declined Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp.'s request to decide if a pending Zometa federal court class action tolls the statute of limitations on an individual state court action that was tried to a $3.2 million verdict ( Novartis Pharmaceuticals...

A Swedish law firm has failed in its effort to sue a director of a former client for "misrepresentation" in Virginia federal court after the court ruled the claim was barred by Virginia's two-year statute of limitations applicable to negligence claims. The law firm had conceded that it...

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - (Mealey's) A Florida state appeals court panel on Feb. 22 reversed a $1.9 million tobacco death judgment against Philip Morris USA Inc., saying that a jury's answer about when a deceased plaintiff knew about her injury meant that the plaintiff missed the state's four...

TRENTON, N.J. - (Mealey's) New Jersey's discovery rule is not foreclosed by a presumption in the state's product liability law that Food and Drug Administration-approved warnings are adequate, the state Supreme Court ruled 5-1 on Feb. 27 in an Accutane case now headed for retrial ( Kamie...

Adopting a middle-of-the-road approach that may raise more questions than it answers, the New Jersey Supreme Court has ruled that FDA approval of drug and medical device warnings creates a presumption against application of the discovery rule to a defendant's otherwise-valid statute of limitations...

MONTGOMERY, Ala. - (Mealey's) The Alabama Supreme Court issued an order March 2 denying a defense application for rehearing of its June 30 opinion that permits a welder to seek damages for exposure to welding fumes within six years of filing suit under the theory of wantonness ( Charles E. Jerkins...

RICHMOND, Va. - (Mealey's) Virginia does not recognize either equitable or statutory tolling for class actions brought by different plaintiffs in another jurisdiction, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled March 2 in an appeal by four Fosamax jaw injury plaintiffs ( John Casey, et al. v. Merck & Co...

The first Monday in October is the opening day of the new Supreme Court term. In recent years the Court has heard a number of securities cases, considering issues regarding class certification in Erica P. John Fund v. Halliburton, 131 S. Ct. 2179 (2011), materiality in Matrixx Initiatives Inc. v. Siracusano...

The Supreme Court heard argument this week on a case which may have a significant impact on the SEC's enforcement program. It focuses on when the five year statute of limitations begins regarding the imposition of a penalty. The Commission also brought two new market crisis cases, one against three...